Captain America #25 [Spoilers]

This is the one, out of all the month's comics, I've been waiting for. Actually, it's my favorite book. It's the one I wait for every month. But especially this month.

I"ve heard a lot about it, of course. It would have been hard to avoid, and honestly I don't ever try very hard not to be spoiled on comics--when you get them once a month, spoilage is almost inevitable. It's all right, it's not a problem.

I'm going to go all fangirl for a moment and just say that I continue to be impressed with this title. Granted that as a long-time comic reader, my expectations may be low, but honestly, I can't recall a book that has been this good for this long. So there won't be much complaining from me.

Things I liked:

• The narration by Sharon, Bucky and Sam in turn, their very different voices.
  
• That Cap's wartime romance with Peggy is mentioned at all, weird as the whole "dating the aunt/niece" thing is. (BTW, if you look at the old Captain America comics from the 40s, the recurring woman is named "Betty Ross"--presumably never revived in the 60s because Silver Age Marvel already had a Betty Ross. Although Cap and Betty's relationship never appeared to move beyond the platonic.)
  
• The entire Winter Soldier/Falcon interaction (and Bucky is definitely drawn as a thirty-something in this issue).
  
• The brief scene with Lukin, the Skull and Faustus, with Lukin/Skull referring to themselves as "we"--telling because Faustus apparently knows the situation and they don't have to pretend to be just one or the other. I wonder if this indicates the degree of merging that has gone on over time.
  
• Sin's concern for Brock--when the Skull orders her not to help him, but to continue with the original plan, she does it, but she's clearly not happy about it. There's the potential for some conflict here.
  
• Steve's last words (that we see) to Sharon.
  
• As always, the fact that Steve Epting draws clothing on his characters (as opposed to spray-painting naked bodies in costume colors). It's sad when that's rare enough that you notice it, isn't it?
  

A couple of thoughts inspired by the internet. First, I've seen folks online complain about the way in which Cap died--that it wasn't "big" enough, that he should have died saving a busload of orphans from Skrulls, something more dramatic or "heroic." Honestly, I think that the way it went--that he was initially shot trying to save a single life--was just fine in that respect, underlining the fact that to Cap the saving of that single life is as important as any other heroic thing he could do. (Yes, I know that's not what killed him, but it's the reason he consciously put his life in danger.)

Another thing I've seen touched on online is the question of whether Sharon actually did shoot Cap, or was the memory itself implanted in her. It does seem unlikely that Cap, at least, wouldn't have known who shot him. On the other hand, if Sharon had shot Cap, it would have been clear to him from her subsequent behavior that she was under someone else's influence, so he wouldn't necessarily have acted any differently toward her than he did here. There are some visual differences between the scene we see and the scene she remembers, but nothing that would lead me to think one thing or the other, so I'll just be hoping that it wasn't her, and not suprised if it was.

By the way, Sin? Currently one of my favorite villains. You don't get a lot of bad guys who are just bad like that.